Grandkids

I saw a sweatshirt once upon a time that said “If I knew grandchildren were this much fun, I would have had them first.”  I didn’t get it at the time (I was 23 years old), but boy, oh boy, do I get it now!

At the time I saw the shirt, I was seriously getting annoyed with people asking when we were going to have children.  We had been married a couple of years by then, and being good Catholics, it was expected we would start procreating right away.  I always wanted to tell those people if they wanted a baby so bad, they should have their own, but I didn’t.  

We eventually did have a couple of wonderful children and spent the next couple of decades turning them into upstanding contributing members of society.  

When Young Man made a lovely young woman his bride, this was cause for enough joy and happiness that begging for grandkids (out loud, at least) wasn’t an issue.  

Then, about six months after they got married, they came to tell us we were going to be grandparents!  The winner of the Miss America contest had nothing on me for excitement.  Captain was more contained about it, although he did say after they left, “Great, now I have to sleep with Gramma.”  Isn’t he precious?  Apparently he didn’t take into consideration that I was going to have to sleep with Grampa!

Bucking the current trend, Young Man and Mama Bear chose not to find out the gender of the baby.  We were okay with that because wondering if it is a boy or a girl is half of the fun.  If you know what it is…what’s left to be excited about?  

This brought about the whole name conundrum.  Captain and I had our own issues in this regard with our pregnancies, and Young Man and Mama Bear went through it all too.  It was just days to weeks before Baby Day that they finally settled on their choices…which they kept to themselves, darn it!  

Over the months before Baby Brogan arrived, we accumulated various baby items:  a pack and play, exersaucer, table booster seat, and a car seat.  Captain commented that we didn’t have that much stuff when we were having our own kids so why did we need it now?  Again, his preciousness is immeasurable.  

It has been a year and a half now since Cubby arrived in the world, and she has brightened all of our lives beyond measure.  During that time, people have asked me, “How do you like being a grandma?”  My answer, invariably, is “Best gig ever!”  Molly gets her nose out of joint about that, seeing it as a statement that I did not enjoy being a parent.  Not true!

Grand-parenting isn’t better than parenting; just different.  As Grampa and Gramma, we get to have all the fun and none of the headaches.  Someone described it to me as the Wind Them Up And Send Them Home club.  So, if Cubby loads up on sugar while she’s with us and is bouncing off the walls, well, we can just ship her back to her mom and dad.   I can get behind that plan.

No one can truly understand the boundless joy of being a grandparent until they actually experience it.  Just trust me when I say, you will LOVE it as much as we do!